Ulaanbaatar was founded as a monastery city in 1649, and actually still perserves the monastery quarter, as well as the residence of The Living Buddha, the former spiritual leader of Mongolia. Prior to its becoming the capital in 1924, with Russian "help", the city was known as Urga, which means palace, a reference to its to it's holding of the Living Buddha's house.

The city itself houses a variable population a bit under one million people, and is, indeed the world's coldest capitol. Temperature variation is between -32 to -18 Celsius in January to 11 - 22 Celsius in summer months.